Old Ford pics

[Ecode70D]

  Those two black Customs are unbelievably beautiful.  Unfortunately I clearly remember the late 1950's when the customs were
not popular and they got junked for the smallest unimportant reason.   
    Times have certainly changed.

[CobraJoe]

Dudley Edwards & Doug Binder (right) with one of their sport car designs. Image: Martin Cook, by courtesy of Dudley Edwards.
Doug Binder, figurative painter, was born in Bradford in 1941.
Between 1957-61 he studied at commercial design at Bradford School of Art, but quickly realised that his interests lay more with abstract painting than with commercial art. In 1958, aged 17, he rented a studio on Thornton Road, Bradford giving him the space to paint what he wanted. The work he completed during this time enabled him to gain a place at the Royal College of Art, London, to study painting.
In 1964 he was awarded an Abbey Minor Travelling Scholarship to Italy. During 1965 he taught at Norwich School of Art for a while before becoming a co-founder of ?Binder Edwards and Vaughan? with two fellow students, including Dudley Edwards, from Bradford School of Art.   They were given the title of the ?Underground Design Group?, gaining a reputation and following for their psychedelic painted sports cars (see example below) and colourful household furniture. Doug received commissions during this time for designs from Philips Record Co Ltd, Ministry of Public Building and Works, Macy?s Department Store, San Francisco, Sanderson Fabrics and Lyons Restaurants, along with commissions from the famous ? John Lennon, for example.

[rmk57]

  Whoa! Somebody's done too much acid.

[RICH MUISE]

Jay...I agree. From what I remember, cars like Customs were not popular back in the day. The popular stuff was longer, lower, more flash, more of this, more of that. Reality is, the shortage of these Customs in today's world is probably due to them having a higher % going to the junk yards at an early age.

[mustang6984]

To each his own I guess...but Hell would freeze over before I would even stand close to that thing, being afraid someone would snap a picture of it and I might be seen near it. Not my taste at all.
I might buy it...and have it shipped straight to a body shop and have it painted British Racing Green...but until then...no closer than 50 feet for me! LOL!!!

[hemidave]

  Ford families

[Ecode70D]

Jay...I agree. From what I remember, cars like Customs were not popular back in the day. The popular stuff was longer, lower, more flash, more of this, more of that. Reality is, the shortage of these Customs in today's world is probably due to them having a higher % going to the junk yards at an early age.

      Rich
       Everything that you stated above is very very true.  In those  days people usually fixed up the longer lower flashy 57's  .   
You are probably old enough to have seen the new 57's coming into all of those big dealerships up there near Commonwealth Ave in
Boston in the old days.   These days I don't give a second look at the strange things that they call cars when they are getting unloaded.  I doubt very much that they will be around 60 years from now 

[mustang6984]

I think the Mustangs will be...but the rest of them...nah.

[CobraJoe]

[Ecode70D]

I think the Mustangs will be...but the rest of them...nah.

      Yes I would agree the Mustangs would probably still be around. 

[59meteor]

      Yes I would agree the Mustangs would probably still be around.

Likely not the 4 door electric Mustang MachE !

[Tom S]

Me, my Mom & our family's stick shift + overdrive '55 wagon on Cannon Beach Oregon in July 1956.
My mothers parents had moved down to Forest Grove Oregon for a while & we drove down The Alcan Highway from Anchorage to visit them.
At some point the ol' man wanted to check out some new '56 Ford wagons in Beaverton.  On the way back to Forest Grove and about one second after the ol' man said that we would probably just stick with the '55 the hood flew up & wrapped itself around the windshield.
Seems that the people at the Ford dealer had looked over the '55 for trade in value & didn't get the hood shut very good.
After we got turned around & went back to the Ford dealer we ended up with a new '56 four door Ranch Wagon with a 312, four barrel & an auto trans that we drove back to Anchorage. I'm pretty sure that the ol' man got a real good deal on it or he wouldn't have bought it.
It was a great car that I sometimes ran the wheels off of a few years later.  That sucker went good! It served our family very well for the next 9 or 10 years & a couple more trips on the then mostly rough gravel Alcan Highway.  It's probably responsible for my great love of 1956 Fords.
Our '56 Ranch Wagon looked just like the one these Anchorage teenagers are standing in front of in the fuzzy second pic.
For all I know it's the same car that someone bought after the ol' man sold it.

[mustang6984]

Likely not the 4 door electric Mustang MachE !

Yea...that is NOT a Mustang...I suspect there will be a name change coning somewhere down the line. MCA is gonna raise a stink over that like they did the Probe back in the 80's.

[CobraJoe]

Someone say Mustang?

[hemidave]

Speedometer man